Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Musical Afternoon and Evening.

9-28-30 SHORT HILLS: Sunday in SF, we all went to a music event of a type I had never heard of before, ‘SF Music Day Live + Free’. At four performance venues dozens of ensembles played from noon until mid-evening. They each played for about 45 minutes. The audience came and went at will. There were string quartets and jazz ensembles. There was old music and new music, chamber music and creative music and jazz. They covered the gamut from Haydn and Beethoven to Pete Townshend, Michael Jackson and Philip Glass. A great concept.

Among the pieces we heard were string quartets by Quincy Porter from 1935, Dvořák, and Ruth Crawford [Pete Seeger’s mother, BTW]. Who’s heard of American composer Quincy Porter?

Recovered from the red-eye by Tuesday, we went to NYC for the NY Phil at Geffen Hall, née Avery Fisher Hall. We usually allow an extra half hour for traffic on the inbound trip, but since there was none, we were early and so walked over to Central Park by Tavern-on-the-Green. We saw bikers, joggers, strollers, dogs, musicians, horses, diners, sun bathers, police, walkers and a nice Z-shaped fold in an out-crop of Manhattan Schist.

At Café Fiorello we met my Aunt Jean for dinner outside midst the buses and ambulances and commuters. She was on her way to the ballet across the plaza from our event.

This was the fifth consecutive performance of ‘Symphony No. 9, From the New World’ by Dvořák. The reviews have used words like ‘majestic’ in their assessments. I thought ‘majestic’ didn’t say nearly enough. The theme from the Largo is one of my favorite melodies, up there with the ‘Ode to Joy’.

NY Phil ready for the Tuesday night kick-off.
The Green Room at SF War Memorial Veterans Building.
Central Park, west side.
Bridal Path by Tavern on the Green.
Street Jazz in the Park.
Lincoln Center Plaza before the music.